#1reasontobe - My Foray into Twitter

Okay, so I didn't have the perfect picture to go with this blog, and the only reason I'm really resurrecting my blog (which died a quiet, twitchy death due to the demands of work) is because of the Twitter hashtag #1reasonwhy. This hashtag exposes the sexism that happens in the gaming industry, a place that I actually work. Strangely enough, most of these hashtags don't resonate with me in any true way. I only got involved because my husband asked me to do so.

When I told him that I didn't feel like any of these tweets really resonated with me, he reminded me of my own #1reasonwhy incident that happened at GDC Online two and a half years ago. I attended as a gaming journalist and a game designer/developer, and it was my first GDC Online ever. I can only imagine what I looked like to most of the people there: bright-eyed, eager, ready to learn and discuss deep gaming issues with my colleagues. For the most part, that's exactly what happened. I never felt belittled. I was taken seriously by the professionals at Bioware, Blizzard, Autodesk, and numerous other entities in the gaming industry. When the vendors knew that I was the VP and Creative Director of a small gaming company, they wooed me with the same passion that they did everyone else.

Then came the stumbling block. I talked to a game developer who made a game that I was very interested in trying, but as always, being a female developer, I asked what the ratio of men to women was in their game. He replied that it was approximately 99.9% men. Naturally, my next question was, "Do you have any plans to improve that ratio?"

Keep in mind that I was there to write about the games being displayed at GDC Online as well as making connections for my own company. His reply halted pretty much any conversation between us. "What? You mean like make it World of Dolls?"

No, actually, that's NOT what I meant. Heck, the game already wasn't about dolls, and I was interested in it. Why would it have to be about dolls to interest women? I'm a woman. I was interested in the game as it was. I simply wanted to know if they had any interest in getting more women, and I wanted to discuss what the challenges would be to do so in such a game. 

His comment was effectively a conversation killer. I had nothing to say after that. I didn't check out the game. I didn't write about it. I didn't talk about it until just a year or so later when we began to expand our own gaming company, and my husband reminded me of the incident and added that it was vitally important we never make that kind of mistake.

Ultimately, I ended up participating in the #1reasonstobe started by Terry Prachett's daughter, Rhianna Prachett, a writer for video games among other things. I, very luckily, ended up in a company that identified my talents as a game and system designer as well as a writer. There's very little discussion about my gender except to acknowledge that my designs might reach a greater variety of gamers than others. That isn't to say that my gender is ignored. It's often valued, but it's just considered another asset of the company, like being a good artist or being a good writer. 

But we also value our men for being male in the same way that I'm valued for being a woman. For some parts of the games I design, I know that I want male input on certain systems within one of my games. We do this to get the best game possible that appeals to a wide variety of people. We're small; we're indie; we need all of our talents utilized in the best way possible. 

My #1reasontobe in the gaming industry is the fact that I have a great team who really doesn't care that I'm a woman but recognizes the perks that having a woman in design brings them. 

Now I have to go carry in our company's daily game of League of Legends.

Are you going to write your book?

This is a question I ask myself frequently. There are currently a ton of demands on my time, and I wonder whether or not it is worth it to shift my time towards my book. Writing the book is a daunting task, but getting it published is what I truly fear. When I read that some of my favorite authors were rejected hundreds of times before they got their first book published, I cringe. They must have spent almost as much time getting their book published as they did writing it... if not more.

So, with that in mind, I put my partially written book on the shelf, and I'll work on it every now and then. The story sits in my head, and new scenes come to me constantly. I really want to tell this story, and I really want people to read it and enjoy it. It's just that the hurdles always seemed far too big.

Now, I feel that with eBooks, there's a chance for good writers to be read without ever knowing the right people or getting the perfect set of eyes to read a single book. I recently read up on Barnes & Nobles and their PubIt! program, and I'm very intrigued. BN.com takes 35% of the proceeds for every book sold, but seriously, that's not that bad. I've heard of publishing companies that take more. Plus, if you do manage to sell quite a few books on PubIt!, I bet that publishers will be more than willing to print the rest of your books.

So, once I put our new game out, I think I'll put some serious time towards my book. You guys will have to buy it, read it, and tell everyone how good (or awful) it is!

Writing Until My Hand Falls Off

Okay, so I'm resurrecting this poor blog again. Since I write so much for a living, it's hard to put even more time into writing. Sometimes, I just need a break! My kids, however, are gone for ten days on an Alaskan cruise with my parents. This may be why I started blogging again. I have a false sense of my free time. Actually, I know this to be true because I also finished three articles for Bright Hub, a site that I normally don't have a enough time to write for even though I get decent hits on my articles. It's nice for extra income, but again, it's writing.

So, you may wonder what I spend all my time writing. Let me make a nice little list for you:

1. I write stories and descriptions for Threshold RPG. (This is a text-based game, so you can only imagine how much writing goes into this. I have to describe every little thing just so players can read it once and ignore it forever more.)
2. I write stories and descriptions for Primordiax. (Again, this is a text-dominated game.)
3. I write 90% of the design documents for our latest project that currently has the code name of CoW. (We will be releasing this game for beta testing in about a month.)
4. I write articles for Bright Hub whenever I can. The extra income is nice.
5. I am currently working on a novel based on Norse mythology. I have no idea if this book will ever be released because sometimes I go months without having time to write on it.
6. I have a short story that I am completing for one of our games. Really, that may never get done either, but I add a few paragraphs here and there.
7. When I'm not working, I am writing up specs for games that I am currently not working on. Yes, I am developing and designing games even in my free time!
8. When the kiddos are in school, I write a lot of letters.
9. I write emails to all sorts of people in regards to our business and our games.
10. I write all sorts of presentations. This is not a favorite past time of mine, but I use the presentations every time someone asks me to speak at a school or a gathering. They're useful!
11. I get a ridiculous number of chat requests from our customers and sometimes from friends. That's a lot of typing! I don't know if that's really considered writing, but I usually think out my replies before I send them. I think it should count.

Okay, that's a short list. I should add blogging to the list now as well. I'd add Facebooking for our business, but that's just getting a bit ridiculous. My whole life would be writing then, but it really isn't. I spend a good deal of time playing games with my kids, playing games with my husbands, and playing games by myself. Okay, so maybe my life is writing and games. How cool is that?